


For Whom the Bell Tolls

by RigelD



Category: Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze
Genre: Bigender der Tod, Hermaphrodites, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, One Shot, Other, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26643073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RigelD/pseuds/RigelD
Summary: Death came to Rudolf the night he was using Morphine
Relationships: Rudolf von Österreich-Ungarn | Rudolf Crown Prince of Austria/Der Tod | Death (Elisabeth)
Kudos: 6





	For Whom the Bell Tolls

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [摸鱼集](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26193445) by [RigelD](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RigelD/pseuds/RigelD). 



> A translation exercise (?  
> plz feel free to point out my language mistakes... if there's any

"I didn't expect you to come." Rudolf half leaned against the bed, his face toward the door, talking dreamily.

"And Here I am. Don’t you realize anything?"

Looking back with a faint smile, Death shut the door with the hand behind his back. He bent down to pick up an empty syringe and tossed it onto the bedside table, watching it roll across. Rudolf turned his head slowly, stared at it for one or two seconds, and then, with a sigh, flattened himself out and stared at the ceiling, staring into vain.

"Your Highness, you’ve been trying yourself a little too hard." indicated Death, shaking his robes and sitting down at the end of the bed.

Rudolf gave him a soft kick. He did not meant to be gentle. He was just too lethargic to do it in a violent way. Then he nodded, as if in acquiescence to what Death had said, and after a few seconds he added, "But it helps me stay sober."

Sober. Death repeated silently, his lips curving upward, and at last the sneer softened into a smile.

"Sober, and serene." Rudolf paused a second and added. He believed for most of the time he was sober enough to know what he should do to save his empire, just as he knew there was nothing he could do at all. There was an impulse in him, from time to time, that he must shoot everyone blocking his way.

And then he realized he couldn't do that, and then he broke down in pain, and then he thought to himself, the only thing he could do was turn the gun to himself.

"In the drawer, " Said Rudolf, half opening his eyes and raising a limp hand, "is another injection...Fetch me, please. "

Death stood up and looked down at Rudolf for a moment. He wasn't surprised, yet a certain look of tolerance appeared on his face, as if he was wondering what to do with the prince. Then he suggested critically, "You will be doomed."

"Doesn’t matter. Otherwise this would be a wasted visit. "

Rudolf's hand was trembling violently as he took the injection out of Death’s hand. He propped himself up on the bed with his other arm, attempting to sit up and open the vial. Meanwhile Death did nothing.

Rudolf’s arms twitched once, and once again. He could not control his power. The fragile glass crumbled in his hands, making him hiss. Then, with his dazed eyes gazing at the wetted palm and the broken glass, his hand trembled more than ever.

Short after, blood slowly oozed from the cut.

"Why don't you help me?"

Death was reasonably initiative. He picked up the broken glass inside Rudolf's hands

and on the bed, and made a gauze bandage for Rudolf to wrap. He took his time and finally tied a pretty knot on the back of Rudolf's hand, and then Rudolf said, "You know what I’m talking about."

"Then you know," said Death, shaking his head and looking at him the way he would look at a wayward child, "That I’m never capable of killing anyone. All I could is taking him at the right time. "

"...And today is not my day?" Rudolf asked in a mournful whisper, frowning.

Death took Rudolf's shaking hand in his. His fingers ran across the back of Rudolf's hand, then his wrist, then he reached into Rudolf's cuff and wrapped the forearm around it.

"Perhaps it was by chance, perhaps fate. Anyway, today is not your day."

Outside the window the wind blows, the rain falls, and the raindrops tap on the windowsill. Rudolf raised his head with his eyes closed, and a soft, faint moan rolled from his throat. Keeping his eyes closed, he felt Death approaching him in the darkness, his arms around him, his lips close to his ear. A few seconds later, somehow, he was lying down, resting his head on Death's lap.

"I saw the nationalists on the street."

Death nodded his understanding. "These people are upset recently. Of course they would come up to you deliberately. They hate you."

"I mean, right now." Rudolf's eyes were looking into some empty space. "Right now. I see the people, their fanatical faces, the restless air around them...And I’m in the middle of them, pushed and staggering, listening to them chanting, 'Austria should incorporate into the German Empire'. They don't know what they're talking about."

"It's night, Rudolf, " Death said. He laid the prince’s wrist into his palm, lowered his eyes and said softly, "It is still raining outside, and no one’s on the street."

A forced smile touched the corners of Rudolf’s mouth.

"I see it." he insisted. "And I can see more…My father, going to Berlin to negotiate with the Germans. He’s wearing a Prussian uniform. The troops, the raising flags, the Jews and Poles being killed...Ah, war, the inevitable war. Answer me, disabuse me – is this the new era that is awaiting us?"

Rudolf turned to his side, clutching Death by the corner of his cloak. Headache and tinnitus were coming back to him, mirage were hovering before his eyes, and the next moment all these feelings were swamping him.

"It was just a dream." Death's reassuring fingertips sketched Rudolf's profile, jaw line, Adam's Apple – Rudolf took a sharp breath and grasped the hand. Then he fixed his eyes on Death's face in the dim light, through which he recognized some kind of merciful, vague love.

Death watched him, his pitiful lover in pain, as if he were looking at the child who had held him by the shoulder and begged him to stay. Death leaned over and whispered. "You're going to change all that, aren't you?"

Or would you rather die in silence?

"Don't say that." Rudolf muttered. He was too exhausted to move his eyes or lift a finger. In the stagnant air, he forgot to take a breath or blink his eyes.

"Give me something else. Since you can't give me that kiss."

Death has many to offer – a place to escape from reality, the comfort and tenderness that he could abandon himself to. And eros. The general and undifferentiated love from Death. The insatiable lust. Rudolf wondered, is it that anyone could have him, because everyone would meet him in the end.

His cloak unfastened, and his corset of dark color shown in front of Rudolf. His hair covered one side of his face, the shadow swaying, leaving the thin pale lips of his to be seen. He finally undressed himself of the last piece of cloth from his upper body. Then he grabbed Rudolf's hand and, fingers interlocked, led the crown Prince to his breast.

Death could give Rudolf accommodation, with his wet vagina easily able to suck the tip of Rudolf’s penis. And he breathed deeply and raised his head to expose his throat to Rudolf – who was backed into leaning against the bed, couldn’t help rubbing his waist and chest, and finally holding his face in hands.

There won’t be any kissing. Rudolf's lips fell on the neck of Death. He licked and then bit feebly, while Death sat on his lap and moved up and down in his rhythm.

His eyes blurred as he involuntarily fucked into Death's body again and again. Every time his attempt of gaining the initiative ended up in being pressed against his bed. The warm breath of Death blew in his earlobes, and at the same time he was panting like a drowning man. His soul struggled, his body sank, and he twisted his fingers into death's golden hair.

He gasped and screamed in delight, tears streaming down his face as he tilted his head, so that the two tears converged into one, falling from the end of his eyes Then Death wiped them away with the back of his hand.

“Why is it?” Death asked in a soft, gentle voice, showing some deliberate surprise.

Rudolf just shook his head. Suddenly he coughed, choked on a swallow. He twitched, and with it came a drop and a drop of tears. A twisted smile appeared on his face suddenly, while his fingers were clenching around death's hair and thigh.

"Don't ask me." Rudolf murmured, "My omniscient friend."


End file.
